


Night Running

by Bestboiuwu



Category: Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Uprising
Genre: M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Reunions, post-coup pre-uprising, uhh idk the timeline very well but takes place during the ISO wars if that tracks, wahey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26301031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bestboiuwu/pseuds/Bestboiuwu
Summary: Tron and Flynn reunite during the ISO wars.Or, where Flynn and Tron's secret bases come from.Or, two deeply traumatized best friends hug and cry for the first time in years.
Relationships: Kevin Flynn & Tron, Kevin Flynn/Tron but only if you squint
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	Night Running

Back in the early days of the grid, whenever they had to stay in the outlands for some amount of time, do some sort of buisness, maybe solve some sort of coding problem near the edges of the grid, Flynn would just hop out into the real world, pull up his keyboard and build them a place to stay.

he would usually make them hidden, somehow- inside of a mountain, built into the face of a cliff. It was a practicality thing, really. Simpler to just cut out a block from the randomly generated structures that made up the outlands then it was to create a new one entirely on his own. Plus, he wouldn't be lying to himself if he said that he didn't like the secret-agent-ness of it all, the idea of a hidden base, where no one else could find it. Throughout the early years of the grid, he had made dozens. Tron, Clu and he had made countless trips to the outlands, taken their time to solve countless problems out by the edges of the grid- Flynn could never bring himself to delete them, too sentimental. Too many memories of him and Clu and Tron, helping to build the grid, doing exactly what they were supposed to. Too much time happily spent together as friends.

As a consequence of his sentimentality, he never got rid of any of them. there were dozens of these secret bases littered throughout the outlands, more than any one program could remember.

He just had to hope that Clu didn't remember the same ones that he did.

everything had gone wrong, and Flynn found himself on the run again. The ISO district had fallen, and there had been nothing he could do about it. His resistance had only made things worse: only made Clu stronger.

So, he found himself wandering the outlands, desperately looking for a place where he could curl up into a ball and stop resisting.

"C'mon, c'mon, yes." He finally breaks through the electronic lock on the door, his ability to hack into digital locks once again proving to be one of his most effective skills.

Granted, it was easier when you're in the version of reality where you're a literal god, but that didn't make it any less useful.

He steps into the base and takes a deep breath, opting not to turn the lights on yet. He just wants to sort of feel the dark for a bit- he's pretty sure that the flood of white lights right now would be more than he could handle. He pinches his eyes shut for a moment and tries not to focus on the pounding in his head, before opening his eyes and turning to keep walking.

The next thing he notices is the disk at his neck.

Clu has made assassination attempts before, Flynn noes loosely what to do. He jerks his head backwards, getting it out of range of the enemy's disk as quickly as possible. He goes for his own disk and aggressively shoves it forward, trying to sink it deep into the enemy program-

He's too fast for that, and next thing Flynn knows he's on the floor, his opponent having thrown him of balance and shoved him to the ground. He's on his back, now, pinned down by a knee on his chest and a disk at his throat-

"Flynn?"

"What?" His voice is hoarse, broken and cracked from exhaustion, and god, he so fucking tired- 

"Flynn, it's me." And Flynn's eyes adjust to the dark, and he manages to pull his fuzzy thoughts to focus on the face of the program on top of him-

And oh, this isn't fair.

"Flynn." Tron says again, and takes his knee off of his chest. "Flynn, where have you-"

"Oh, No, no, no, this isn't fair."

"Flynn?"

"It's not fair. It's not fucking fair. My brain can't fucking do this to me. All these cycles, all this shit I've been through, and I have to start hallucinating-"

"Flynn!"

" _What?_ " There's venom in his voice, a deep, biting venom that Flynn usually only allowed for himself-

"I'm real!"

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am." And he offers a hand now, a sturdy, solid hand, and Flynn takes it. "I'm real." He says, softer now, and Flynn squeezes the hand like he's holding on for dear life. Tron helps him up, and Flynn stares for a minute before pulling Tron into a hug. The tightest, most desperate hug he's ever given in his life. He sobs into Tron's shoulder.

"I thought you were dead, man." He said, choked by hiccups and sobs.

"I know. I'm sorry." Tron says, and hugs him back.

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wondered where Tron and Flynn's outlands homes came from, so that was the impetus for that. Granted, it took a turn into the "I thought you were dead and that sucks and now I'm traumatized" niche that oh so much of my fic seems to fall into. What can I say. I know what I like.
> 
>   
> I've changed the title of this fic at least once. Current title is the song Night Running by Shin Sakiura from the show BNA
> 
> Also, if you're my friend Sam reading this: mmm, this Tron is Andrew and Robin flavoured :)


End file.
